CSAO Chemical Coast Secondary Archives - Page 3 of 5

Norfolk Southern train 69Q negotiates southbound

Doing things a little differently today, Norfolk Southern train 69Q negotiates southbound through the “Hess” crossovers on the Conrail Shared Assets Chemical Coast Secondary at Port Reading, NJ, to gain access to the west leg of the wye at CP-PD so that it may head west on the Port Reading Secondary, and join the NS Lehigh Line main at CP Bound Brook for her trip west for reloading.

Routing for the ’empty buckets’ (as the local crews call them) ‘usually’ brings the train north to Oak Island Yard before turning west for the main; the mostly single-track Port Reading Secondary acts as a bypass of sorts, and a good way out of central coastal NJ should the rails be clogged at busy Oak Island. It’s also slightly unusual for CSX power to mix with NS power on NS road trains; one will more often find lease units, or BNSF or UP power as assistance on the NS mainline.

This day features a homecoming for NS C40-9W 8395, as she began life as Conrail 6188 in June of 1993; assisting with todays move is CSX AC44CW 481 and CSX ES40DC 5224.

Image recorded July 29, 2010.

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CSX locomotive consist noteworthy for its rare Blue paint

CSX

In the Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail) breakup of 1999, CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway acquired the assets of Conrail, and began repainting the Blue CR locomotives in their respective colors as they came in for maintenance or overhaul. The repainting process has been steady but slow for both railroads, and as of this post, over 11 years later, only 37 Blue units remain on CSX rails. Finding a Blue unit in a locomotive consist is noteworthy, and finding a Blue unit leading a train is special.

Here we see CSX 7374 (ex-CR 6229, blt 8/93) and CSX 7836 (blt 12/92) on the head end of a CSX unit ethanol train, with Conrail Shared Assets crew PR-19 in charge as they pass CP-PD on the CSAO Chemical Coast Secondary in Port Reading, NJ.

Image recorded June 21, 2010.

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Two Blue ‘CRQ’ units work small, busy Port Reading yard

Norfolk Southern

With Conrail Blue hard to find in the year 2010, some 11 years after the Consolidated Rail Corporation breakup, and with only a small percentage of the Conrail fleet ever painted in the ‘Conrail Quality’ scheme, it was with great surprise, and much delight, to find on this day not one, but two Blue ‘CRQ’ units working small, but busy, Port Reading yard in Port Reading, NJ, on the Conrail Shared Assets Operations Chemical Coast Secondary.

This is “Shared Assets” territory, where CSX and Norfolk Southern both supply power to serve the customers of the central and northern New Jersey area, so that some semblance of competition is preserved in this very busy market. Here we see CSAO yard job PR-6 switching the yard with veteran power, with NS GP38-2 5281 (ex-CR 8078, nee-PennCentral 8078, blt 2/73) and CSX GP40-2 4428 (ex-CR 3345, blt 6/78) easily handling the assignment for the crew on this beautiful spring day.

Image recorded June 2, 2010.

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CSX and Norfolk Southern in unusual locomotive lashup

CSX

No, CSX and Norfolk Southern haven’t merged (at least not at the time of this posting!), and yes, this is an unusual locomotive lashup, even in Conrail Shared Assets territory.

The two NS units (NS 2612, an SD70M, and NS 6771, an ex-CR SD60M) brought train 68Q to eastern New Jersey yesterday, and proceeded to the storage facility for unloading. The two CSX units (CSX 7865, a C40-8W, and CSX 7585, a C40-8) brought their own loaded ethanol train in yesterday, and then cut away for an overnight stay in Port Reading Yard.

To help facilitate todays movements, local CSAO crew PR-19 took the CSX power a mile south on the Chemical Coast Secondary to tie onto the now-empty NS train, and brought everything north to Carteret, NJ, where the two CSX units would then cut away and return to their train waiting on the west siding.

The NS units will receive a new road crew and head west as this afternoon’s NS 69Q, while the CSX train would now be spotted for off-loading by the PR-19 crew … all in a days work for the busy crews of the Conrail Shared Assets Operations in central NJ.

Image recorded May 20, 2010.

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‘East siding’ grade shows world is not flat

Norfolk Southern

In a telephoto image proving that the world is indeed ‘not flat’, Norfolk Southern train 68Q is seen parked on the Port Reading yard track, aka the ‘east siding’, in Carteret, NJ, on the Conrail Shared Assets Chemical Coast Secondary. Evidence of the grade is apparent with the small piles of sand alongside the rails, where engineers have had to activate the onboard sanders to increase adhesion of the steel wheels on the steel rails to gain traction.

Traffic is a bit busy on this spring day, as another loaded ethanol train is sitting on the ‘west siding’, directly across the main. NS 9517, along with sister C40-9W 9241, will have to wait until tonight or tomorrow morning to be off-loaded, as the South Jersey Dispatcher will take the adjacent train first, issuing a Form D south to Sewaren within an hour of this photo.

Image recorded May 7, 2010.

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